In recent years consumer demand for affordable and user-friendly portable multimedia players and devices has increased. Consumers expect the device to be palm-sized and to have a large display relative to the size of the device with user-friendly information and data entry mechanisms. A problem faced in the industry is to meet the expectations of the consumers within the confines of the size of the device where space or the “real estate” of the device is a premium. The conflict is in space allocation to the display and the data entry mechanism on the device.
In some instances, a need to incorporate a virtual keyboard into the display for the input of text has led to clustering of keys in the display. This clustering of keys typically adversely affects the precision of how a desired key is selected, and this lack of precision is a bane of many consumers of such portable multimedia players and devices.
In this regard, there is a need for an apparatus and method for inputting information into an electronic device that addresses the aforementioned conflict and problem to meet consumer expectation and demand.